The Three Jewels

The Three Jewels, also rendered as Three Treasures, Three Refuges
or Triple Gem (Sanskrit: Triratna, also Ratna-traya, Pali: Tiratana,
Tisarana Chinese: 三寶 or 三宝, Sānbǎo, Japanese: Sambō or Sampō) are the
three things that Buddhists give themselves to, and in return look
toward for guidance, in the process known as taking refuge.

Taking refuge in the Three Jewels is central to Buddhist lay and monastic
ordination ceremonies, as originated by Gautama Buddha. Taking refuge
in the Triple Gem is generally considered to make one officially a
Buddhist . Thus, in many Theravada Buddhist communities, the following
Pali chant, the Vandana Ti-sarana is often recited by both monks and
lay people:

Buddham saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Buddha

Dhammam saranam gacchāmi
I go for refuge in the Dharma

Sangham saranam gacchāmi
go for refuge in the Sangha

The Mahayana Chinese/Japanese version differs only slightly from the
Theravada:

自皈依佛，當願眾生，體解大道，發無上心
I take refuge in the Buddha, wishing for all
sentient beings to understand the great way and make the greatest
vow.

自皈依法，當願眾生，深入經藏，智慧如。
I take refuge in the Dharma, wishing for all
sentient beings to deeply delve into the Sutra Pitaka, gaining an
ocean of knowledge.

自皈依僧，當願眾生，統理大眾，一切無礙
I take refuge in the Sangha, wishing all sentient
beings to lead the congregation in harmony, entirely without obstruction.

Importance of the Triple Gem

The Triple Gem is important and is one
of the major practices of mental "reflection" in
Buddhism, we reflect on the true qualities of the Buddha, Dharma and
Sangha. These qualities are called the Mirror of the Dharma in the
Mahaparinibbana Sutta and help us attain the true "mind like a
mirror".

Reflection in the Mirror of the Dharma

The qualities of the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha are frequently repeated
in the ancient texts. It is a Buddhist practise to reflect upon them.

The
Buddha: "The Blessed One is an Arahant, perfectly enlightened,
accomplished in true knowledge and conduct, fortunate, knower of
the world, unsurpassed leader of persons to be tamed, teacher of
devas and humans, the Enlightened One, the Blessed One."

In some traditions, the Buddha as refuge, is known as the historical
Buddha and also 'the full development of mind', in other words, the
full development of one's highest potential i.e. recognition of mind
and the completion or full development of one's inherent qualities
and activities.

The Dharma: "The Dhamma is well expounded by
the Blessed One, directly visible, immidiate, inviting one to come
and see, applicable, to be personally experienced by the wise."

Refuge in the Dharma in the Vajrayana tradition includes reference
not only to the words of the Buddha, but to the living experience of
realization and teachings of fully realized practitioners. In Tibetan
Buddhism, it includes both the Kangyur (the teaching of the Buddha)
and the Tengyur (the commentaries by realized practioners) and in an
intangible way also includes the living transmission of those masters,
which can also be very inspiring.

The Sangha: "The Sangha of the
Blessed One's disciples is practising the good way, practising the
straight way, practising the true way, practising the proper way; that
is, the four pairs of persons, the eight types of individuals - This
Sangha of the Blessed One's disciples is worthy of gifts, worthy of
hospitality, worthy of offerings, worthy of reverential salutation,
the unsurpassed field of merit for the world."[2]

In the Vajrayana, a more liberal definition of Sangha can include
all practitioners who are actively using the Buddhas teachings to benefit
themselves and/or others. It can be more strictly defined as the 'Realized
Sangha' or 'Arya-Sangha', in other words, practitioners and historical
students of the Buddha who have fully realized the nature of their
mind, also known as realized Boddhisatvas; and 'Ordinary Sangha', which
can loosely mean practitioners and students of the Buddha who are using
the same methods and working towards the same goal.

In the Vajrayana
traditions, there is another very important and expanded aspect of
the Refuge, the refuge in the teacher. This can be understood on many
levels including what is called the Three Roots- the Root of Blessing,
Root of Methods and Root of Protection. Another way to understand this
is as the Body (Sangha), Speech (Dharma) and Mind (Buddha) of the Buddha.
The teacher has a prominent place in the Vajrayana, as without his
personal permission and guidance, a practitioner cannot achieve proper
spiritual progress.

Why is it called the Triple Gem?

In Buddhism, the following three
are called Gems (Ratna) as they are invaluable :

Buddha (The Enlightened One; Chn: 佛, Fó, Jpn: Butsu), who, depending
on one's interpretation, can mean the Historical Buddha, Shakyamuni,
or the Buddha nature or ideal within all beings

Dharma (The Teaching;
Chn: 法, Fǎ, Jpn: Hō), which is the Teachings of the Buddha.

Sangha
(The Community; Chn: 僧, Sēng, Jpn: Sō), The Community of those great
people who have attained Enlightenment. so that those people(Sangha)
will help you to attain Enlightenment.

The three gems are so called since amongst all gems, the Buddha gem
and Dharma gem are considered incomparable in value as they are not
material, so cannot be created, destroyed or changed in any way. Buddha's
mind in his earth body or sambhogakaya is frequently associated with
the greatest gem of all, the diamond. In the Anguttara Nikaya(3:25),
Buddha talks about the diamond mind:

These three types of persons are found in the world: One with a
mind like an open sore; one with a mind like a flash of lightning;
one with a mind like a diamond.

One who is irascible and very irritable,
displaying anger, hatred and sulkiness; such a one is said to be
a person with a mind like an open sore.

One who understands the Four
Noble Truths correctly is said to have a mind like a flash of lightning.

One
who has destroyed the mind-intoxicating defilements and realized
the liberation of mind and the liberation by knowledge is said to
have a mind like a diamond

With this we understand that to take refuge in the Buddha is to take
refuge in the mind like a diamond, the hardest natural substance that
can cut through all delusion.

The Three Gems when used in the process of taking refuge, become the
Three Refuges.

The expression Three Gems are found in the earliest Buddhist literature
of the Pali Canon, besides other works there is one sutta in the Sutta-nipata,
called the Ratana-sutta, which contains a series of verses on the
Jewels in the Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha. In the Ratana-sutta, all
the qualities of the Sangha mentioned are attributes of the Buddha's
enlightened disciples.

The Three Refuges occur very frequently in the ancient Buddhist Texts,
and here the Sangha is used more broadly to refer to either the Sangha
of Bhikkhus, or the Sangha of Bhikkhunis.
"I go to Master Gotama for refuge and to the Dhamma, and to the
Sangha of Bhikkhus."